Tourism to the Island of Ireland

Located on the north-western tip of Europe,
Ireland is Europe’s third-largest island. (The very largest are
Great Britain and Iceland.) The third largest is split into two:
Northern Ireland with Belfast as its capital is part of the UK. The
Republic of Ireland (also known as Eire) in the south has Dublin as its
capital and is an independent member of the EU. Ireland is steeped in
ancient myths and legends, for example the Giant’s Causeway, an area of
interlocking basalt columns on the coast of County Antrim in Northern
Ireland, is said to have been the work of giant Finn MacCool, who built
it as a path to a rival giant who lived in Scotland; but it is actually
the result of ancient volcanic activity.

Ireland is also a country of contrasts, with beautiful, soft, lush-green
countryside, striking lunar landscapes, labyrinthine caves,
crystal-clear lakes and the sometimes tempestuous Atlantic Ocean, which
has created the coast’s golden sands and rugged rocky outcrops. Ireland
has a fascinating history dating back to 6,000 BC, when there were
invasions by Neolithic tribes, to the more recent “Troubles” of the 20th
century. The latter was an undeclared civil war between Protestants and
Roman Catholics, ostensibly a sectarian dispute, but in reality more
tribal and economic in origin. From time to time a weak economy is
thought to have driven over 80 million mostly young Irish people to seek
work in all corners of the globe, in what is known as ‘the great
diaspora’. Fortunately many of them have come back in more prosperous
times.

The Irish have a well-deserved reputation for being
warm-hearted and welcoming, eager to let you into the secrets of their
homeland. A people with a passion for music and dance as well as
talking, which they call “craic” (pronounced ‘crack’), meaning a
pleasant chat in a social context, such as in a pub, and especially over
a glass of Guinness! One other term for conversation you may come across
is “blarney”, which is to attempt to flatter or persuade someone, often
by telling an untruth. The word comes from the ‘Blarney stone’ in
Blarney Castle, and the legend is that whoever kisses that stone (and
plenty of people are willing to lean out over the top of the tower to do
so) will be given the ‘gift of the gab’, and never be lost for words
again.